This application is filed under 35 USC xc2xa7371 and represents the national stage of International Application No. PCT/US97/10573, which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/019,404 filed on Jun. 7, 1996.
This invention relates to a floor raceway and monument arrangement for permitting cables, specifically power and communication cables, to be safely disposed on and positioned along the surface of a floor.
The feeding of power and communication cables to work stations in office environments has long presented a problem, particularly in large open areas where the cables must extend a substantial distance from a wall or floor power supply to a remotely-located monument or box provided with power receptacles and/or communication jacks. Extending the cables along the floor is generally considered unacceptable since the cables create trip points if they extend across walkways. Further, power cables provided in such instances must be encased within metal conduit, typically flexible conduit, and such conduit-encased power cables not only are unsightly but also provide an undesired upward protrusion which impedes mobility of equipment and people therearound. As to communication cables, it is typically unacceptable to extend these along the floor, particularly along walkways, since such cables are easily damaged if positioned where they can be stepped on, and accordingly the running of such cables normally also requires that they be encased within some type of protective conduit. This thus makes running of the cables unsightly and interferes with proper usage of floor space in the vicinity of the cables. With the ever expanding need for workspaces which are more open and defined generally by freestanding furniture, in contrast to panel-defined workspaces, the supplying of power and communication cabling to such workspaces is an increasing and significant problem. At present, the most successful way to overcome such problem is to feed the cables under a raised floor arrangement, which itself is a complex structure and which complicates overall installation and rearrangement of the cables, or in the alternative the cables are fed overhead above drop ceilings and are then fed downwardly at many locations through power poles, and this itself is complex and requires the usage of a large number of power poles which are often unsightly.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved raceway and monument arrangement adapted to be mounted on the floor for permitting power and communication cables to be fed therethrough, which overall arrangement possesses a high degree of flexibility and includes both flexible and rigid sections so as to permit it to extend across walkways, thereby significantly increasing the adaptability of this arrangement so as to provide power and communication cabling access at numerous remote workstations.
The floor raceway and monument arrangement of the present invention, as briefly mentioned above, extends from a cable inlet location to one or more remote locations at which a floor mounted monument is provided, the latter typically being provided with both power receptacles and communication jacks. Several such monuments can be disposed in series along the raceway arrangement. The raceway arrangement may include an elongate rigid section suitable for extending across a walkway, which rigid section protectively encloses both power and communication cables therein, yet enables such cables to be readily laid therein and accessed. The raceway arrangement also typically includes one or more elongate flexible sections intended primarily for use in non-walkway areas. Each flexible section is defined by a plurality of cable clips which are disposed directly adjacent in side-by-side relationship and are supportingly engaged on the floor. Each clip has a downwardly opening channel part which embraces a conduit-type power cable, and the clip additionally has at least one, and in the preferred and illustrated embodiment two, channels for receiving communication cables, these latter channels always being readily accessible for laying in or removal of the cables. The construction and configuration of the cable clips enables them to be disposed either in a straight aligned relationship, or in a horizontal curvature to enable the overall raceway to be fed under and bent around furniture components or other equipment. One or more floor-type monuments are connected to the raceway arrangement, which monument connects to the conduit-encased power cable. The power cable can connect to one end of the monument as a supply, and can also connect to the other end of the monument so as to permit extension of the power cable to an additional monument if desired. The monument has a housing structure associated therewith which defines a removable top cover defining thereunder a suitable clearance passage so that communication cables can pass upwardly and over a main outlet block for extension to a further monument. One or more of the communication cables can be fed into the outlet block for connection to suitable communication jacks.
Other objects and purposes of the raceway and monument arrangement according to the present invention will be apparent upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.